1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a form processing system and method for processing forms generated in conjunction with marketing and sales. More particularly, the invention relates to a form processing system and form processing method for performing various tasks based on a completed form in, for example, a retail store that sells clothing and other products to customers where forms with information having a format depending on the product are preprinted and then completed with additional information such as adjustments to be made to the clothing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Stores that sell apparel and other such products have typically used forms to record and confirm various information about their products and customers as part of the product sales. Preprinted forms designed and formatted according to the particular product type are typically used. The color of the form may be changed according to the product type, and different forms may show the shape or profile of a particular product. Numerous different forms may therefore be used in a single store.
If tailoring is required to fit clothing to the customer's size and shape, for example, the store clerk typically takes the customer's measurements and writes the results in specific places on the appropriate form. Other information typically also recorded on the form includes information about the customer and delivering the product to the customer after it is finished.
These forms are also often multipart forms so that multiple copies of the same form and information can be easily obtained. When the product is paid for one of these copies is used as a receipt given to the customer while the other copies are filed or passed to another department for reference in completing the job, such as making adjustments to the clothing. Forms thus have an important role when performing tasks arising from product sales.
Because of the extremely wide range of products a store may carry, however, using forms as described above can sometimes interfere with a smooth work flow. It takes time to find the form that is used for the particular product purchased by a customer, for example, and filing and storing processed forms can be complicated, thus increasing personnel costs. There is also the cost of having a printing company print a large number of multipart forms, and the increased work and time delay resulting from delivering forms to different departments. Handling and processing forms generated in conjunction with product sales is therefore a problem that lowers overall productivity.
The present invention is directed to solving these problems, and an object of our invention is to provide a form processing system and form processing method that can reduce the workload of handling forms generated in conjunction with product sales, hold down costs required for processing and managing forms, and improve the productivity of form processing by printing forms on demand and digitizing form images.